Reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief
by EarthFairy1221
Summary: Annabeth, Nico,Thalia, and an OC later others are sent back in time to read the Percy Jackson series.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I probably never will. But i do own Rosabella and her father. **

**I'm going to be writing a Story about the characters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians as well as the characters of Heroes of Olympus. I hope you all enjoy this.**

**This story is for fun, and I hope that nobody takes it the wrong way. I respect and honour Rick Riordan and I hope you all do the same. So on with the story.**

Introduction

It was an average summer solstice and the gods were all arguing like usual, while Hestia tended the fire.

"Mother Rea always liked you best."

"Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters."

"How could you hate love, everyone loves love."

"Love kills young maidens, you forsaken my hunt."

"How dare you steel my daughter away from me."

"Will you get over it woman, it's been centuries."

"People with intellect are so much smarter than machines."

"Machines beat people any day."

"How dare you crash your bike again! Did you think you wouldn't get in trouble! You better be sorry!"

"Ugg, Sorry mother, no mother, yes mother"

"My haikus are incredible. How dare anyone say differently."

"Yes, yes they are. Hey Dionysus, can I borrow some drachmas?"

"Hey, my wallets gon- HERMES!"

As I said before everything was the usual untill a bright light filled the throne room.

The gods all went silent. They watched as Four people appeared in the middle of the throne room.

They stood dazed for a moment before a blonde girl notice and asked after she bowed " Why have you summoned us?"

" We didn't summon you? Who are you children?" Asked Athena

" Mom, Its me Annabeth" The Blonde girl said.

Athena looked shocked "But...You should be eight..."

This surprised the four kids before them. The girl who said she was Annabeth opened her mouth to say something but that's when a box and a note appeared on the floor in front of her.

She picked it up and said" Theres a note."

"Well read it." Zeus said impatiently.

Annabeth cleared her throat and read:

_Dear Gods and Demigods,_

_We have decided to send these future demigods back in time to read about our favorite demigod. On no circumstance are you allowed to harm the demigods in any way. It might change the future for the worst._

_sincerely,_

_Apollo and Hermes_

_P.S. We might send more demigods so be prepared just in case._

Annabeth finished reading as Apollo and Hermes High-fived each other saying "Were awesome"

" Well introduce your self then" Zeus said still sounding impatient.

Annabeth stepped forward and said "Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus."

Before the gods could ask questions a girl with punk cloaths and spiky black hair said" Thalia, Daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of THe Hunters of Artemis."

" But...Your a tree" Zeus said.

"I was a tree but a friend brought me back." Thalia said

"Wait what happened to Zoe?" Artemis asked looking worried for her lieutenant.

"It will probably say in the book" Was Thalia's reply. Just then the last girl in a green dress with flowers and wavey dark red shoulder length hair with bright green eyes steped foward.

''Rosabella Evans, daughter of Demeter but please call me Bella.'' Rosabella said looking at her mother as she said smiles at her with a happy look on her face.

The last kid came up. He had dark hair and wearing all black, " Nico di Angelo, son of Hades," said then added seeing the look on Zeus face ," And I was born before the oath and was put in the Lotus Hotel and casino."

" Hades I told you to kill them." Zeus said glaring at Hades.

" Like I was going to kill my son. What would you have done in my position?" Lets just say that shut Zeus up.

" What are the books called?" Athena asked Annabeth trying to change the subject.

Annabeth opened the box and her eyes widened. Thalia and Bella looked over shoulders and her eyes widened but she read the books names " There called _Percy Jackson and the Olympians,The lightning thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titans curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and the Last Olympian."_

" Well who's going to read first?" Athena asked oblivious of the fact that both Poseidon,Bella, and Annabeth paled at the titles.

"I will" Nico said taking the book from Thalia.

He Cleared his throat and began to read.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I probably never will. But i do own Rosabella and her father. **

Chapter 1

Prealgebra Teacher

**"I accidentally vaporize My Pre-Algerbra Teacher," **Nico read.

"Are all the chapters going to start like this?" Athena asked.

" Knowing Perce, probably," Bella replied.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

The demigods nodded in agreement.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

" Oh-no He's giving advice. Run for your lives!" Thalia teased

**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Not bad seaweed brain not bad." Annabeth said so quietly that no one heard.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check" Nico said.

**It's scary.**

"Check" Bella said.

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Double check" Thalia said.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't-" Apollo started.

" Finish that sentence and an arrow will go through the empty space you call a head." Artemis said

" Ahhh. You know you love us, sis."

"Don't call me sis!"

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

Annabeth made a little choking sound at the name which didn't go unnoticed by Athena and Aphrodite.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes" all the demigods chorused.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"He even admits it!" Laughed Nico

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds like fun." Athena said.

"More like torture" Poseidon said.

**I know-it sounds like torture.**

Everyone laughed.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"Sounds like Chiron." Athena mused.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"He falls ashleep in class!" Athena said looking appalled.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Yeah right" Thalia snorted.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

There was a moment of silence then everyone burst out laghing.

"What do you think he was aiming for?" Nico said between laughs.

"Who wouldn't aim for the bus?" Hermes said.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Cue more laughter.

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

"Awwwww. I wanted to hear more." Said Apollo.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww, What kind of lunch is that?" said Aphrodite

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"I can't wait to tell Grover." said Thalia laughing.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Way to blow your cover," nico and Bella both said.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares yelled. He wanted more action.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Yeah. I do too but not to wear." Apollo said

"Idiot" Artemis muttured.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Awwww" Ares said.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me."You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

Nobody noticed Poseidon pale besides Bella who look worried at him.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer" informed Athena

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"For trying to learn?" Athena says looking Appalled.

_Why does that sound familiar... _Hades and Nico thought.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Suuuuure." Thalia Says. "Nervous breakdown my but."

_Why is my Fury there... _thought Hades

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said,"You're absolutely right."**

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said,"Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did" Thalia said.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Why did it have to be that one?" Asked the elder gods who experienced it shuddered.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because …"**

**"Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD!" All the gods yelled.

"I'm sure Chiron will correct him," Annabethl said quickly. She didn't want her boyfriend vaporized.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See."

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Yeah ew' said Demeter.

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"How? That was centuries of fighting,… and. Paragraph… Poseidon stop laughing… ARGH!" said Athena out of bewilderment.

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Why are they laughing he got it right" Said both Annabeth and Bella.

"I don't know. Mortals are weird." Nico said.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend,"Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"BUSTED" Apollo and Hermes yelled.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"We think like a goat" Apollo aid as everyone laughed.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed."Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Oh Chiron" Annabeth said shaking her head.

"Chiron needs lessons on how to change subjects; I'll ask some of my kids to teach him." Hermes says.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"All men are doofuses." Artemis said.

"C'mon, sis, you know you love us." Said Apollo.

"Don't call me sis!"

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"That's observant." Athena said.

The demigods looked at each other. That has to be the only time Athena complimented him.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"For a good reason seaweed brain' Annabeth murmured.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted:"What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"Sounds like my kind of class," Hermes said.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas.**

At this all the gods looked at Zeus.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Now they were looking at both Zeus and Poseidon.

"Why are you guys fighting?" asked Athena. They just shrugged.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Of course"

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

"understatement of a lifetime!" Thalia said.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

There was silence then they all bursy out laughing.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy" Ares coughs.

"Ahhhh," The goddesses cooed.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Hmm.." Said Hephaestus probably motorized calf tables.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"Eww"

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Well that's attractive," Apollo joked. Aphrodite looked disgusted.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"A _wave?" _Athena asked looking suspisosly at Poseidon.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

"POSEIDON" yelled Zeus. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Fine. Thats my son." Poseidon said. Zeus was about to go kill the boy, concidering the look on his face so Poseidon added "The Note said that we can't change the future.

"Fine," said Zeus after a while. He slomped down in his throne. All the demigod let out a relief sigh.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No" Hermes groans "You never guess you punishment it makes it worse."

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No duh."

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"You don't want to be on the receiving end of that." Said Nico shuddering. Bella patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"That's what monsters want you to think" Athena states.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"I thought he was supposed to be watching Percy." Poseidon says with a hint of worry.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Never is," said Annabeth.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Great no witnesses." Poaeidon said, worried about his son.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket."Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" Athena asked.

Nobody answered.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't…"**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"YOU SENT A fURY AFTER MY SON!" yelled Poseidon turning to Hades.

Out of Desperation Hades said " I don't know it hasn't happened yet."

Poseidon glared at him but motioned for Nico to read.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

Everyone cheered.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"He's still letting the mist affect him?" Athena asked disapprovingly.

Again Nobody answered

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

"Like fatherlike son" Apollo said as everyone laughed.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover seriously needs lying lessons." Bella says shaking her head.

"Satyrs are horrible liars." This suprisingly came from Dionysus.

"Your Actually listening?" asked Annabeth

"Of course not Annabel, what makes you say that."

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Now Chiron can lie" Said Hermes.

"Who wants to read now?" Nico asked Holding the book in the air.

"I will" Said thalia taking the book.

She flipped to the right page and began to read...


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I probably never will. But i do own Rosabella and her father. **

**CHAPTER TWO**

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

**"Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of death"** Thalia read.

"Death" Hades mused.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would st are at me like I was psycho.**

"He is psycho." Said Thalia

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Twenty dracmas that its Grover" Said Apollo to Hermes.

"Deal"

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Haha pay up Apollo said.

Hermes grumbled under his breath but gave him the dracmas. A bet is a bet.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"We _seriously_ need to teach Grover how to lie." Bella said.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"You got attacked by a Fury, get use to it." Nico said. Poseidon paled.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

The demigods winced. they all had dreams like that.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Wow you guys are mad." Hermes said turning to Poseidon and Zeus.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Athena looked horrified.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Good. fight." I'll let you guess who said that.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Everyone started laughing.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"Ah, Percy, Percy, Percy," Bella shook her head, but smiled.

"It means -" Athena started but was cut off by Poseidon.

" I'm sure its great but let's get on with the story."

Athena glared at him.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Mamma's boy" Ares said.

Poseidon glared at him and Ares gulped and cringed in his throne.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Stupid Gabe. He sure makes a nice statue though." Bella mutters, but no one hears her.

" Paul doesn't seem like a gambler to me" Nico said obviously confused.

"This is before Paul. His first stepfather." Annabeth said. She never met him but she heard he was horrible.

"Oh"

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Ahhh that's so sweet." Aphrodite cooed.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

Annabeth smiled.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

" Somebody wants to impress Chiron," Thalia said in a sing-song voice.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good seaweed brain." Annabeth sighed. she wished he was here.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

Athena huffed." You don't treat books that way." Everyone rolled their eyes.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"Well he knows the difference now." Annabeth and Bella both said.

"What? "Asked Poseidon his face paling considerably.

Nobody answered which made him pale more.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Ok that is kinda hard" Annabeth admitted.

" Did Annabeth just say school was hard?" Nico asked.

" Shut up" She said punching his arm.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Nico shivered. "Not a good feeling."

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"Yes. He's going to eavesdrop" Hermes said.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Yeah right" Thalia snorted.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Ok he has a point." Thalia admitted.

**I inched closer.**

**"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"What's the summer solstice deadline?" Artemis asked

Again nobody answered.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

Nico snickered. "He's still _enjoying_ it." And Bella nudged him.

**"Sir, he saw her… ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"Well that won't freak him out," Said Thalia.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

" Rule number eight: Never give away your position!" yelled Hermes.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good. Make a hasty retreat. Rule number nine." Hermes said.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"That was really careless of Chiron," Bella commented.

"Yeah, but if it were a human the Mist would distort reality. Only demigods and monsters would be able to see him as he truly is." Annabeth said.

"Yeah," Thalia agreed, "but he still should be more careful."

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"He's very observant." Athena said.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"Yeah! He got away!" yelled Hermes and Apollo.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"Won't work. Satyrs can read emotions." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth you're talking to a book." Nico said.

"Shut up."

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"No duh." This came from Thalia.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"THREE HOURS!" Hermes and Apollo yelled at the exact same time.

"Idiots" Artemis said under her breath.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

At this Annabeth grumbles and grits her teeth, going unnoticed by the others.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp" Ares said careful not to let Poseidon hear.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"Ouch." Nico said.

"He's going to take that the wrong way." Annabeth said with a sigh.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

''Oh Percy," Bella said sadly.

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

"See"

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

" Poseidon's a nobody but his uncles not." Zeus said.

All the other gods glare at the book making Thalia fidget a bit as she was the one holding it.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"Well that was nice of them." Hestia says smiling.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Hestia's smile turns into a disappointed frown. "Never mind what I said."

'Jerks" Thalia said.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"What a coincidence," Nico said sarcastically.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

The throne room erupted in laughter.

"Good one kelp head,'' Thalia said between laughs " probably gave him a heat attack."

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

They laughed harder when they heard that.

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Never confess!" Hermes yelled.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh not much, just the whole thing." Bella said.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

" Why are they in fancy script when they have dyslexia?" Athena said glaring at Dionysus.

" Its fun to watch them read it." He said nonchalantly.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Harsh" Apollo said.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"At least he's sorry about it." This surprisingly came from Artemis. She wouldn't admit it out loud by she was starting to like Percy.

Everyone stared at her like she grew a second head. " What" She said. everyone turned away and Thalia started reading again.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"He lost sleep over the satyr?" Artemis asks and Annabeth nods. "Percy's one of a kind, his fatal flaw is personal loyalty." _Hmm maybe this boy isn't as ignorant as the others, I shall give him a chance._ Artemis thought.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

Everyone in the throne room made a face, issuing that they defiantly wouldn't like the smell of rotten eggs.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

_Why does that sound familiar?_ Hades thought.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Zeus' eyes pop open as well as many other gods and goddesses eyes, including Poseidon's.

Annabeth and Bella's eyes widen in recognition. "HE SAW THE FATES. Why didn't he tell me."

Everyone gasped._ How is he still alive_. many thought.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Poseidon pales considerably, which doesn't go unnoticed to the others but none of them know what to say to him. None of them except for Bella, who walks straight up to lord Poseidon and whispers in his ear _"the string was not his."_ Colour returns to his face and she returns to her seat and put an are around Thalia shoulder to help clam her down.

Annabeth sat extremely still, a silent tear running down her face.

Thalia's skin was sickly pale. Her eyes looked too big for her face. She was shaking terribly, and looked like she would faint at any moment.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

So did everyone in the throne room.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"yes go" Annabeth said

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Seaweed brain" Bella said as she had tear running down her face now. She still had her arms around Thalia.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone gasped._ How is he still alive?_

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"How little do they really understand." Aphrodite says shaking her head

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"Oh-no"

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything" Thalia said through the tension.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"They're much worse, Percy." Nico said.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"Oh, Kelp Head," Thalia muttered, but she was smiling. She missed her friend.

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

Thalia sighed. He still felt bad. It was her choice.

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"On that happy note, who wants to read next?" Asked Thalia

" I will" Annabeth said.

Nico was still in shock. _His cousin had seen the Fates. There was no way he could've survived if that was _his_ string._

He thought about this for a second, and then decided to move on. He would learn sooner or later.

She took the book and was about to read when a bright light filled the throne room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I probably never will. But i do own Rosabella and her father. By the way Bella only loves Percy like a brother. **

**CHAPTER THREE**

**GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

_"On that happy note, who wants_ to_ read next?" Asked Thalia_

_" I will" Annabeth said._

_She took the book and was about to read when a bright light filled the throne room._

After the light disappeared everyone looked to see Two boys and a girl in the middle of the throne room.

They stood dazed. The boys had brown hair and looked exactly alike and girl had dirt all over her cloths and on her hands. They figured out were they were and bowed to the gods.

" This must be the other demigods the note talked about." Athena reasoned.

"Wh-" the girl was to ask but there was another flash of light and a note appeared on the floor. She picked it up and read:

_Heres some demigods for you. We might send more so be prepared._

_Hermes and Apollo_

"Well introduce yourself." Zeus said.

The boys stepped forward. One said "Connor..."

The other said" And Travis..."

Then they said together "Stoll, Sons of Hermes."

Hermes smiled at his sons.

Then the girl "Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter." She smiled at her mother and she smiled back.

After a quick explanation about what happened in the book, the three sat down with the other demigods.

" I'll start now **' Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants," **Annabeth read.

Everyone burst out laughing.

" Grover that's indecent." Travis said between laughs.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Seaweed brain."

"Well that was stupid." Athena said.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"I would have ditched him to," Said Travis.

Katie smacked his arm "Thats mean even if your freaked out."

Nobody noticed Connor snickering.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and**** First," I told the driver.**

Connor looked at Travis "Are you thinking what I'm thinking."

" Don't you dare." Annabeth said glaring at them.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

" awesome," Thalia said.

"The best." Annabeth said.

" Beat cook ever." Nico said.

"Amazing." Bella said.

Poseidon smiled at all the nice things they said.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

Then he frowned.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"Jerk" Aphrodite said. She grabbed a tube of lipstick and threw it at Zeus. She had perfect aim.

"HEY THAT WAS MY EYE!" Zeus yelled "That hurt"

"Good" Aphrodite said.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Not angry anymore, Aphrodite cooed" Awwwwwwwww." and Poseidon blushed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"She can lie but not lie. You can pick uncle." Hermes said.

Poseidon just smiled.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"understatement" Thalia coughed.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Ewww." Most of the people in the room said.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"HE ASKED HIM FOR CASH. WHO DOES THAT!" surprisingly it came from Hera, who has been uncharitably quiet through the chapters.

Everyone stared at her. She never defended a demigod before. It was just plain strange. She said "What" and they all turned to the book.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. **

Everyone gagged.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"WHAT!" Bella yells her eyes looking like a nature's fury ready to be unleshed. All the gods, goddesses, and demigods inch away from her in fear.

"WHAT!" Poseidon yelled.

He got off his throne and disappeared before anyone could stop him.

Everyone stared in shock.

"Should we be worried?" Annabeth said.

Nobody answered. Then Annabeth went back to the book.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Cue more gagging.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Athena's eyes pop out of her head._ I wonder…_ she thinks.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he's semi decent." Thalia said. She was disgusted at Gabe.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

" Nevermind." She scrunched her nose with disgust.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"We all do." said Travis, Conner, and Nico.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Ugg, This man needs to be removed off the face of the earth." Artemis says with more disgust on her face then ever.

" Who would live in theat pig sty?" Nico asked.

"Nico that's an insult to pigs everywhere." Thalia said.

That broke the disgusted tension. Everyone laughed.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

" Oh sarcasm, sweet sarcasm." Nico said. That was one of the things he missed about Percy.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

''How can it be that bad?" Katie asked.

" With Him? probably." Travis said.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

Everyone moved closer to the edge of their seats, tense.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

Everybody sighed in relief

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Awww" Aphrodite cooed.

"Wimp" Ares said. Then got smacked up the head by Aphrodite.

"What is with you? your always like that."

Ares stayed quiet.

Aphrodite huffed and motioned for Annabeth to read.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"Wow." Most people said.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

" NO FAIR, i wish we had a mom like that." Connor said.

Travis nodded.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

Ares was about to say 'wimp' again but stopped seeing the look on Aphrodite's face.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

So did everyone in the room.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Or a God." Apollo said.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie!" this came from the least likely person, Hermes.

Everyone starred at him.

"What i know this isn't the time for a lie." Hermes said.

Everyone looked at him more than got back to the book.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"It wouldn't to her she can see through the mist." Annabeth said.

The Gods looked at her shocked.

Annabeth just shrugged and began reading again.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"That man is going to be sorry when I-" Bella began angrily, but was interrupted by Annabeth's voice.

"Probably gambled it away," Thalia said disgusted quiety to herself.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him,**

"Do it!": Everyone yelled. They had enough of smelly Gabe.

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"Awwwww" Everyone said. they really wanted that jerk to get decked.

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better" Nico and Thalia said at the same time.

They looked at each other.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"bribery, oh sweet bribery." Connor, Travis, and Hermes with dreamy look on their faces.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"WHAT!" Aphrodite screamed so loud California could hear it.

" YOU CAN'T PUT A BUDGET ON CLOTHES" Aphrodite screamed.

"Honey, I'll take you shopping after this. if you stop. Your making us deaf." This didn't come from Ares it came from Hephaestus.

Aphrodite calmed down."Really?" Aphridite asked looking at her husband.

"Would I lie to my wife?" He asked.

Aphrodite squealed.

Nobody noticed Ares scowled.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game." **

"Interrupt! He payed for it." Apollo said.

" Apollo said something smart." Artemis said.

"Shut up"

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.**

"Do it!" everyone yelled expectedly Ares.

**And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everyone laughed.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"Thats what we want to know" muttered Athena.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"He has a brain?" Connor asked.

" If he does it's the size of a pea." Said Travis.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"Idiot" Apollo said.

"All men are idiots." Artemis said.

all the men in the room yelled "Hey!" While Apollo said. " You know you love us, sis."

"Don't call me sis!"

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

"Jerk" Was heard from all over the room.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like He'll be driving, he's twelve!" Annabeth yelled.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Everyone laughed as Annabeth blushed.

"You think like Percy" Nico said still laughing.

"Shut up"

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Annabeth and Bella both growled.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

There was a shocked silence.

"He's powerful." Athena said.

"Yes he is" Annabeth said the last words turning into a whisper.

_Maybe too powerful _thought Zeus.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets**

"I guess you don't go there." Thalia said turning to Annabeth.

" I do, I make him clean it first though."

"Wait, Why did you go there Annabeth? It's sea spawn's cabin." asked Athena.

"Ummm, He's my friend." Annabeth said.

"Oh, okay" Athena said but still sounded suspicious

**, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

"Of course."

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Aww that so sweet" Aphrodite cooed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"Its like she's connected to the sea" Said Katie.

"probably what drawled Poseidon to her." said Bella as she thought about it.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" Zeus asked "That's my color."

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice."

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"He gets it from Sally too?" Thalia said.

"Yep , apparently." Was the answer she got.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"Which she is writing in our time probably at this very moment." says Annabeth Smiling.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Yeah he does" Annabeth said. Thalia gave her a reassuring hand on her Bella give her hand a squeeze.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"He is"

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"He doesn't care about that, seaweed brain.'' said Annabeth.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But… he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Percy!" Bella says angrily and just shakes her head.

" Why that little" Hera said angrily.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"At least he regrets it." Said Artemis.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." said Nico.

"Says the person whose the least normal" Thalia teased

"Shut up."

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Why would a cyclops be following him?" Connor asked.

" Not all cyclops are good." Annabeth said shuddering at the memory. Thalia put a hand on her shoulder.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Wow"

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"He's willing to sacrifice his safety, so his mom can enjoy herself?" Hera asks amazed and Annabeth just nods.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD ROCKS!" the twins yelled.

Then they got smacked up the head by Katie.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"She didn't want to leave you," Bella said.

Annabeth pursed her lips.

_That was a_ fatal_ mistake on Sally's part..._

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"I hate his dreams." Said Annabeth

"Are they really that bad?" Asked Apollo

"Percy's dreams are highly vivid and very prophetic." Annabeth informed them.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everyone looked at Zeus sence Poseidon wasn't there.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"Yeah! I won!" Zeus yelled.

Thalia rolled her eyes at her dad's behavior.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What is he then?" Apollo asked.

"Think about the title" Athena said.

" Oh... I still Don't get it"

"Idiot" muttered Artemis.

_Why did he have to be my twin?_ Artemis thought.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

"Where what!"

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"Oh come on Seaweed Brain," Annabeth muttered. "You have to do better than that."

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Finlay." Apollo said.

"idiot" Artemis said rolling her eyes.

"Well it's getting late. WE should get to bed. Hermes show the demigods to their rooms." Athena said.

"Will do" Hermes said getting up.

The gods flashed out and Hermes said "Come with me."

The demigods followed him out of the throne room.

**Good? Bad? Plz review**

**see ya**


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